I started my first business when I was in 4th grade, And it changed my life
Not how you think though.
I grew up in El Limon, a rural town in third world Venezuela. My parents were highly academic, overworked and scraping by to give 5 children the top notch education they deserved, in a place that offered very limited options.
At 9 years old, I was starting my fourth private school. I was obsessed with stickers. I didnt have money to buy them. I didnt have money to buy lunch like ev
eryone else. I wanted money, I wanted stickers, I wanted to be liked, bond and buy the empanadas and passion fruit juice at the cafeteria, as all my friends did. I had no clue how I was going to do it, but there was a plan brewing in me.
The only office supplies store in town was owned by a super nice lady, Senora Carmela, my mom’s friend. I remember being lost in time going through the display of stickers imagining what I would do with them, the scent of brand new erasers, books, pencils, notebooks filling the air
One day I asked Senora Carmela if she would let me buy a packet of stickers and pay her back later. She said yes!
I had a plan… The packets came with 4 sheets of the same stickers. I would keep one, and sell the other 3 to my friends at school for the same amount as the entire packet. The plan worked!!
I paid Senora Carmela back, and got two more packets. Kept one sheet of stickers, and sold the other three with the same strategy over and over. Very soon I had a very nice collection of stickers, an interested clientele who liked me, and money!! Even Senora Carmela would say I was her best customer, I was contributing to the local economy!!
Until one day the principal found out, called my mom and told her I wasn't allowed to do that. I had to stop.
So, I stopped.
These are some of the things I learned then: -My great ideas, creativity and resourcefulness aren’t worth it, dont matter, something bigger than me has the final say -Even if something feels good and right for me to do, and benefits everyone, it is not right to do it because authority says it isnt right. -Dont question authority -The pain of losing is too much, so I might as well not try -My ability to make money doing something I love will fail -I am stuck doing things I dont like -Nobody cares. I will always struggle
These were all valid assumptions for a 4th grader who had no one tell her otherwise. The interesting thing is, this wasnt a highly traumatic event at all, but how I interpreted it shattered my whole world. And I didnt tell anybody.
This evolved into deep seated debilitating grooves in my belief system, that kept validating a painful perspective about myself and life that was not true at all. Not at all!!
But I didnt know it. I just kept recreating scenarios throughout my entire life in alignment with that blueprint which kept me in a never ending cycle of breakthroughs/breakdowns. Throughout my entire adult life I’d feel the fire, the juicy possibility, things were happening, the self-trust creating awesome momentum, then I would completely lose it ALL.
Until in one of my lowest lows 3 years ago I found the root cause, something I had no idea! this memory and a couple more showed up, which had all to do with the reason why, even though I knew my worth, I kept breaking down into patterns of unworthiness and victimhood, lack mentality and hands tied on my back.
Rapid Transformational Therapy allowed me to understand how this mess started, and gave me the healing chance to not only shatter that irrelevant view of myself, but become the wise adult, the loving caring empowering caretaker for that precocious bright, smart little girl and tell her how badass she is, how amazing her idea was, how incredibly resourceful she is, capable of creating whatever it is she wants for the greater good, how I am here to help her realize her dreams, how free she is to express herself, how much I adore her and cheer for her and am here for her…
This is what happens in the battle between logic and emotion. Deep seated emotions will always win until we unwrap what is running the emotion, and transform that outdated belief, so YOU, connected to what lights you up, always wins and flow through life connected, trusting and confident.
Now this doesnt mean my life is perfect now. Im utterly human and there is always stuff that comes up! But the deep understanding of why things feel the way they do for me, while honoring what's authentic, whole and true, gives me the liberating healing power to overcome outdated beliefs very quickly, no bs, and move up fast into the next, most aligned level as the badass creatress of my best life story, knowing that
Life happens for me, through me, as me and by me
It is such a privilege to move through life this way, integrating work/life/freedom into my life, and helping others cultivate this as well.
This was me in all my entrepreneurial glory displaying my of my greatest pieces! Picture taken by my dad in our front yard, circa 1977, El Limon, Maracay, Venezuela